How effective is your organization at managing changes made to the Application Designer Objects, File Server Objects and the functional configuration/business rules data in your PeopleSoft application?

Built using PeopleTools technology, CAPI is an end-to-end change management and version control solution that helps you to competently manage the changes made to your PeopleSoft application. CAPI directly integrates with your PeopleSoft application, which helps you to effectively plan, better manage and efficiently utilize your PeopleSoft application.Through its version control, application designer/file objects locking, workflow, migration management, CAPI enables organizations to control and enact change without disrupting business.

CAPI has many features that distinguishes itself from other similar application change management products available in the market. Using CAPI, you can now control the changes and maintain multiple version of your application designer objects, file objects, folder objects, functional configuration data, database objects and COBOL Stored Statements, all in the same change request.

More About CAPI

Change Control
To process a change request, your business processes call for many specific tasks and activities that comprise your change management procedures. CAPI enables you to automate complex change management processes and implement controls that are necessary for compliance and audibility. With CAPI, task routings and notifications are automated resulting in efficient communications.

CAPI's flexibility means that you can easily model your organization's change management processes in CAPI so that you can enforce the required controls and build custom workflow tasks, routings, system codes, and approvals.

Version ControlCAPI helps to reduce your support costs and mitigate the risks associated with the quality and reliability of your PeopleSoft application programs and functional configuration data. CAPI versions and stores all of the Functional Configuration Data, Application Desinger Objects, File Objects, Folder Objects, Database Objects and COBOL Stored Statements in its own repository. This reduces the risks of overwrites or lost development work by giving your team the power to immediately restore any object version without having to perform time-consuming database refreshes. In addition, CAPI prevents development conflicts by allowing your team to reserve and lock Application Designer Objects across all of your environments - making synchronization as easy as a mouse click.

Development SupportCAPI supports all phases of the Application Development Lifecycle from requirements gathering, design, development, testing, deployment, and production support.

CAPI has built in features that support each of these functions in a fully integrated and efficient manner. For example, you can create and associate a business requirement document to a workflow task, associate a functional and a technical specifications to the requirements, and create test scripts. As testing is completed, application failures are reported as Issues which results in Change Requests that are processed in CAPI with code versioning, approvals, and migrations.

CAPI delivers a powerful and dynamic reporting platform using which the customers can choose what to print and how to print. The customers will also have the option to explode the attachments directly inside the document. This means, if you had stored 3rd party email approvals, requirements document, design documents and other related documents inside the change request, those attachments will be exploded automatically inside the report.

CAPI - Features and Capabilities

CAPI was meticulously designed to deliver the core objective of a Change Management and Version Control solution for PeopleSoft, without overloading it with features that would eventually be an overkill. This strategy of ours had helped us to cut down tremendously on the development effort and pass on the savings to our customers.

CAPI has several features which distinguishes itself from other similar application change management products available in the market. Our objective was to deliver a solution that is very easy to use, easy to deploy, easy to customize and most importantly fulfills change management and version control requirements of the PeopleSoft application.

Architecture/Core Concepts

Build using PeopleTools Technology

Works on Windows/Unix/Linux/Solaris

Leverage PeopleSoft delivered Java API´s

Migrate File Objects using XCopy, FTP and SFTP

Support Multiple PeopleTools Versions

Customize the product, if needed

Support objects natively

Enforce separation of duties

Development Support

Version Control of all Supported PeopleTools Objects

Version Control of File Objects such as SQR, nVision, COBOL, Crystal Reports, etc

Overview
At mcAMDOIS, it is our aim to deliver a cost effective, easy to use and a complete change management solution for PeopleSoft that will enable organizations to better plan, manage and process change requests. We look forward to providing you a technically innovative, best in class product and world class services.

No matter which change management tool you use, the more closely it achieves the objectives of the core change management and version control requirements, the more it will contribute to reducing your total cost of ownership for PeopleSoft. The benefits of your change management solution should easily outweigh the cost.

Change Management and Version Control applications can help your business maximize the return on investment you have made in your PeopleSoft application and increase productivity to achieve faster results in deploying application changes. Change management solutions provide a complete enterprise solution that allows you to stay ahead of the competition in developing and deploying your applications by reducing the total cost of ownership and providing a flexible and scalable tool for managing the software development life cycle.

Solution
At mcAMDOIS, we understand the cost of ownership for your PeopleSoft application is very high. Consequently, we feel strongly that the cost of ownership for an Change Management and Version Control solution to support your PeopleSoft application should be low. CAPI is a cost effective solution because it is built using PeopleTools which means you do not have to invest in any new infrastructure and you can leverage your existing staff to support it.

CAPI will allow your organization to define highly effective and efficient change management processes thereby reducing the time to complete change requests and resolve incidents while also reducing the number of errors. You will be able to realize these benefits because CAPI offers a powerful feature set that provides a one-click migrations and task assignments, enable custom workflow, and allow developers & business analysts to version and restore all codes & data including PeopleTools objects and Functional Configuration data, minimizing time lost due to code re-write or migration rollback.

Contact us, to checkout CAPI's pricing and how it compares with other similar products available in the market.

Licensing Model

CAPI´s licensing model is simple and straight-forward; where you will pay a 1-time license fee and a year-on-year annual maintenance fees. During the initial purchase, you will pay the 1-time license fees + annual maintenance fees and from the second year onwards you will pay the annual maintenance fess alone every year. CAPI´s license will give you unlimited user rights (ie not restrictive on the number of developers/testers/users/etc) for you internal business operations only.

At mcAMDOIS, it is our aim to deliver a easy-to-use and cost-effective solution, without compromising on the Quality, Features and Technological Innovations. In order to cater to the needs of small to large size PeopleSoft customers, CAPI is being offered in three different pricing models. Based on your budget and requirements, you can choose the correct licensing model that would best fit your licensing requirements. We are positive that the option to choose your own license model, would interest you.

Named Host License Model

Enterprise License Model

Group License Model

Please contact us, to learn more about these pricing models and how CAPI can help customers like you, to save your budget dollars on a Version Control Application.

Do you already use version control application for PeopleSoft? CAPI can help you to reduce the total cost of ownership by 50% to 70%.

Sounds interesting. Please Contact Us to request a no-obligation, detailed savings profile and see how much you can save by replacing the existing ACM application with CAPI.

Annual Maintenance

Annual Maintenance Services generally means that mcAMDOIS will provide: (i) Software Fixes or Patches, if any, as and when mcAMDOIS makes any such Fixes or Patches generally available and (ii) clarification of functionalities and features; (iii) updates to the existing features or new features in the Change Management and Version Control product (iv) remote guidance in the operation of the Software; and (v) Software error analysis. mcAMDOIS will use reasonable efforts to provide error corrections or work-around for the most severe errors as soon as possible and based upon mcAMDOIS´s classification of the severity of the error. As long as the annual maintenance fee is fulfilled, annual software patches and upgrades shall be made available to the customer.

Annual Maintenance is charged as 20% of the selected pricing model.

Additional Services

Installation Services
The customer may choose to purchase this optional installation services. If purchased, mcAMDOIS shall designate a Consultant to implement the program(s) at offshore, per a schedule that shall be mutually agreed upon by all parties. The customer shall designate a Point of Contact (POC) for the Consultant and provide all relevant detail and requested process mapping documentation as specified by the checklist, if any. CAPI software implementation is contingent upon the availability of the POC and the POC´s ability to produce all required information for the Consultant to implement the software in the designated timeframe.

Customization Services
At any time, should the customer have any specific requirement to customize CAPI to make it work with its internal process or has a requirement to add new functionality in CAPI, the customer may choose to buy the Customization Services, which will be charged on an hourly basis.

Request A Demo
Thanks for your interest in CAPI. To request a live online demo of CAPI, simply fill and submit the form below. We will validate all the information you have entered and shall revert back to you. As a policy, we do not entertain the requests from free email services like hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc. So please send us request with your work email id. Someone from mcAMDOIS will touch base with you at the earliest.

Company/Organization Information

Company Name

Address

City

State

Zip/Postal Code

Country

Website URL

PeopleSoft Technical Information

No. of Production Database Instances

PeopleTools Version

Application Name and Version

RDBMS Name and Version

Operating System-App Server

Operating System-Prcs Scheduler

Operating System-DB Server

Customer Contact Information

Primary Contact

Name

Title/Designation

Phone Number

Work eMail

Budget Owner

Name

Title/Designation

Phone Number

Work eMail

Demo Schedule

When do you want the demo to be scheduled? Please mention at least a couple of date and time options.

What would be a convenient date and time at your end for a 10minutes introduction phone call? Please give us at least 12 hours interval.

Additional Information

Currently, do you have any PeopleSoft Version Control product installed? Yes No

If yes, please mention the name of the product.

Are you evaluating any other version control products? Yes No

What are the primary functionalities you are interested to see in the demo?

Please provide a detailed description of your requirements.

How CAPI Compares With Others?

To get you started, we have provided a very high level comparison of the product features between mcAMDOIS CAPI and other similar products available in the market.

Features Comparison - Categorized View

Features

mcAMDOISCAPI

ProductX

ProductY

ProductZ

Architecture

Built using PeopleTools Technology

For products built using PeopleTools Technology the application server and process scheduler can be installed on Windows/Unix/Linux/Solaris

CAPI is built using PeopleTools technology
- this means you are already familiar with the underlying technology
- you already have the resources in-house to install, configure and administer the application
- you don't need any additional training on the technology
- you can use the internal resources to either customize the product or develop additional reports

Operating System independent - CAPI´s application server and process scheduler can be configured on Windows/Unix/Linux/Solaris or any other operating system certified to work with your PeopleTools version

Most of the application change management products for PeopleSoft delivers a feature to automatically build the project (or record definition) in the target environment as a part of the deployment. To build the project in the target environment, these products shall internally invoke the application designer; this directly creates a dependency on the operating system in which the product can either be installed or its services configured.

This further means that, if you have your existing PeopleSoft application configured in either a Linux or Unix operating system, then you´ll end-up purchasing additional hardware and Windows operating system license.

Whereas CAPI delivers a feature using which you can configure CAPI´s application server and process scheduler in any operating system certified to work with your PeopleTools verion and still have CAPI to build project automatically in the target environment.

This means, with CAPI, you will not end-up purchasing either new hardware and additional operating system license, instead you can leverage your existing hardware infrastructure and operating system license to configure CAPI´s application server and process scheduler in UNIX/Linux/Solaris/Windows operating systems.

A single instance of CAPI can support multiple PeopleTools versions

If you have multiple PeopleTools versions installed, then, with most of the application change management products for PeopleSoft you will have to either purchase additional product license and/or install additional instances.

For example, say that you have FSCM in PT8.52 and HCM in PT8.54; then, with some of our competitor products you will have to purchase additional product license and install two instances of the product (per the example - one for FSCM and another for HCM), because they simply do not support multiple PeopleTools versions.

Whereas, a single installation of CAPI can work across multiple PeopleTools versions; this means you don´t have to purchase any additional product license.

Additionally, using CAPI, the stakeholders (including the developers, testers, managers, etc) can access the single of CAPI instance to work on the change requests belonging to all the PeopleSoft applications running on multiple PeopleTools versions.

Version Control Functional Configuration Data

mcAMDOIS takes pride to be the first vendor to introduce this imperative feature to version control functional configuration data. After we introduced this feature, some of the competitors had tried to deliver a similar feature; however CAPI still has the distinction on the ease-of-use, efficiency, security, versioning, migration and rollback aspects of this feature.

In our competitor products, to check-in a version of the functional configuration data changes, one has to write data mover scripts and run these scripts as part of the migration. The problem with this approach is that, PeopleSoft maintains several vital information as a part of the configuration pages, which must never and ever be updated in the production database at any point in time. Additionally, these products does not deliver any quick way to rollback the changes made to functional configuration data.

Whereas CAPI delivers a easy-to-use and secured solution to version control, migrate and rollback functional configuration data. With CAPI, you don´t have to write any data mover script to check-in and migrate the changes made to the functional configuration data. CAPI handles functional configuration data as individual objects and stores multiple versions of them in its own version repository.

Version Control Non-PeopleSoft Object Types

While most of the application change management products for PeopleSoft delivers the functionality to version control PeopleTools Objects (including File Objects), CAPI travels the extra mile.

Using CAPI, you can version control Folder Objects (including the files and sub-folders inside a folder object), COBOL Stored Statements and Database Objects (like stored procedures, functions, etc), migrate the changes to one or more target environments and also do either a complete or selective rollback as well.

Schedule DBA/Migration Scripts

Whenever a change request is deployed into the target environment, it is a common requirement to have the deployment process to automatically run the DBA or migration scripts. For example, either during the migration or rollback there may be a need to run SQL/DMS/Shell/BAT scripts either before and/or after the migration.

In order to implement an effective internal control procedure, the auditors wants the DBA´s to maintain a complete log of the scripts run, who approved the scripts to be run, when the scripts were run and what data got affected by the scripts, etc (ie., when, what, who). Architect does not address this requirement to capture the scripts output and the DBAâ€™s are required to maintain the log manually.

Using CAPI, you can schedule any number of SQL/DMS/Shell/BATscripts and any combination of these scripts and most importantly configure the run order in which the scripts must be run as a part of either a migration or rollback. When scheduling the data mover scripts, you will get the additional option to have the script executed either in a user mode or bootstrap mode.

As a part of running these scheduled scripts automatically in the target environment (or any other source environment), CAPI will automatically capture the script and script output and store the same as a part of the migration history. You can inquire on both the script and script output any time and also generate a report on the same for your auditing requirements.

Release Management

In most of the organizations there may be requirement to schedule monthly release, quarterly release, half-yearly release, minor release, major release, etc in addition to the regular change requests. It may be required for a change request to be tagged with a particular release with the option to either be processed individually or to be rescheduled as a part of another release.

While some of the application change management products for PeopleSoft does not deliver any feature, CAPI delivers an effective release management feature to address this imperative business requirement.

Using CAPI´s release management feature, you can tag a change request to a particular release, reschedule the same to a different release or process the change request individually as well. The release can be scheduled to run at a particular date and time and can be deployed to one or more target environments, in parallel.

For establishing database connectivity to an environment, some of our competitor products use database links (linking to be setup between our competitor product´s database and all the other database instances in the migration path - including the production database instance).

It is globally agreed fact that database links are prone for performance issues and security issues. The general advice from known security administrators is to refrain from creating any database links, in particular, to the production database.

Additionally, in some of the application change management products for PeopleSoft, you may find them using a "Staging Database", either to version or migrate the change request. It is quite a common phenomenon for the objects to get â€œstruckâ€ in this staging database; which has to be "debugged" to retrieve the "struck" object.

As you may agree, it would make sense for a product developed using PeopleTools technology to leverage what is already delivered with the technology instead of using other issues-prone alternatives. CAPI has been meticulously designed to leverage PeopleSoft delivered Java API´s to establish database connection to all the database in the migration path, making it safe and secured.

Deploy and Rollback version either online or offline

While most of the application change management products for PeopleSoft does not provide the option to schedule its process either online or offline, CAPI delivers the option to schedule majority of the delivered processes to run either online or offline.

For example, using CAPI, you can schedule a migration request to automatically run at a particular date and time - say, on Sunday, 7:00AM. Similarly, you can schedule other processes (like versioning, rollback, etc) to automatically run at a particular date and time.

Selective Data Refresh

During the day-to-day production support, there may be tickets which may be data related production issues.

For example, say, the PeopleSoft support team receives ticket saying that one of the voucher is not getting picked by the PayCycle process in Financials application. The root cause of the issue may not be in the PayCycle Application Engine process, per say, but may be due to the voucher data or payment data or other data related issue. In order to debug such a kind of issue, the PeopleSoft Support may wish to get a copy of the production data in any of the downstream instances, so that they can debug the issue to find out the root cause.

Depending on the volume of data, traditionally you would either write a data mover/SQL script (after painstakingly identifying the underlying tables) or refresh the downstream instance with a copy of the entire production database (if the data volume is relatively high). As we would agree, either of these approaches are time consuming and whenever there is such a kind of production issue, the business would want the PeopleSoft Support team to provide a resolution ASAP.

CAPI provides a helping hand to quickly resolve such a kind business critical data related production issues. Using CAPI´s Selective Data Refresh feature, you can very quickly get a copy of selected data copied from production database into any of the downstream database instances and immediately get to the business of resolving the issue - without waiting for the entire database to be refreshed or write data mover/SQL scripts.

CAPI´s Selective Data Refresh feature has been meticulously designed to deliver a high performance while working on a large volume of data. The in-built multi-threading process (for load balancing) will equally distribute the load across the threads, thereby delivering a high performance without disrupting the business.

Selective Data Refresh is a trendsetter feature which is available in CAPI ONLY and not in any other application change management products, for PeopleSoft, available in the market.

Environment Refresh

Once in a while it may be required to refresh any of the downstream database instance with a copy of the production database. In most of the organizations, the PeopleSoft Administrator´s would take a backup of some of the PeopleTools data (like Security, Process Scheduler settings, IB settings, etc) and import the same after the database refresh is completed. It is a classic business scenario, that may occur frequently is some organizations, where it is required to preserve some of the PeopleTools data or application data after a complete database refresh. Additionally, in HCM or other PeopleSoft applications, it may be required to scramble the data in the downstream database instance after a complete database refresh.

While some of the application change management products for PeopleSoft delivers the feature to do a complete database refresh; none of them helps you to preseve PeopleTools data or application data in the target database instance and also run data scramble script post refresh.

CAPI is a delivered with an unique Environment Refresh feature (which is a trendsetter in its kind), using which you can specify the rules to define what data needs to be preserved after a complete database refresh and also schedule the data scramble scripts to scramble the data post refresh.
CAPI´s Environment Refresh feature has been meticulously designed to deliver a high performance while working on a large volume of data. The in-built multi-threading process (for load balancing) will equally distribute the load across the threads, thereby delivering a high performance without disrupting the business.

Key Differentiators - Summarized View

Features

mcAMDOISCAPI

ProductX

ProductY

ProductZ

Built using PeopleTools Technology

For products built using PeopleTools Technology the application server and process scheduler can be installed on Windows/Unix/Linux/Solaris

N/A

N/A

A single instance of product can support multiple PeopleTools version

Database Connectivity

Leverage PeopleSoft delivered Java packages

Use db links

Native

Version Control Folder Objects

Version Control Functional Configuration Data

Version Control COBOL Stored Statements

Version Control Database Objects

Deploy and Rollback version either online or offline

N/A

Release Management

Selective Data Refresh

Environment Refresh

Partial

Disclaimer: mcAMDOIS strongly recommends you to compare the product features on your own, by directly checking with other product vendors to know more about their product features. mcAMDOIS makes no claim on the accuracy of other product features, as the above information is based on the data available in the internet.

Why Choose CAPI?

CAPI will allow your organization to define highly effective and efficient change management processes thereby reducing the time to complete change requests and resolve incidents while also reducing the number of errors. You will be able to realize these benefits because CAPI offers a powerful feature set that provides a one-click migrations and task assignments, enable custom workflow, and allow developers & business analysts to version and restore all codes & data including PeopleTools objects and Functional Configuration data, minimizing time lost due to code re-write or migration rollback.

Click here to read a detailed comparison of the features between CAPI vs its competitors.

Total Cost Of Ownership (TCO)

At mcAMDOIS, it is our aim to deliver a cost effective, easy to use and a complete change management solution for PeopleSoft that will enable organizations to better plan, manage and process change requests. We look forward to providing you a technically innovative, best in class product and world class services.

No matter which change management tool you use, the more closely it achieves the objectives of the core change management and version control requirements, the more it will contribute to reducing your total cost of ownership for PeopleSoft. The benefits of your change management solution should easily outweigh the cost.

Change Management and Version Control applications can help your business maximize the return on investment you have made in your PeopleSoft application and increase productivity to achieve faster results in deploying application changes. Change management solutions provide a complete enterprise solution that allows you to stay ahead of the competition in developing and deploying your applications by reducing the total cost of ownership and providing a flexible and scalable tool for managing the software development life cycle.

At mcAMDOIS, we understand the cost of ownership for your PeopleSoft application is very high. Consequently, we feel strongly that the cost of ownership for an Change Management and Version Control solution to support your PeopleSoft application should be low.

CAPI is a cost effective solution because it is built using PeopleTools which means you do not have to invest in any new infrastructure and you can leverage your existing staff to support it.

Return On Investment (ROI)

At mcAMDOIS, we understand the cost of ownership for your PeopleSoft applications is very high. Consequently, we feel strongly that the cost of ownership for an Application Change Management solution to support your PeopleSoft application should be low. mcAMDOIS is able to provide a cost effective solution because it is built using PeopleTools which means you do not have to invest in any new infrastructure and you can leverage your existing staff to support CAPI.

CAPI will allow your organization to define highly effective and efficient change management processes thereby reducing the time to complete change requests and resolve incidents while also reducing the number of errors. You will be able to realize these benefits because CAPI offers a powerful feature set that will automate migrations and task assignments, configuration data migration, customizable reporting engine, enable custom workflow, and allow developers to version and restore all codes including PeopleTools objects, minimizing time lost due to code re-write or migration rollback. The incentives outlined above are just a sampling of reasons our customers on average, are able to achieve full Return on Investment (ROI) for CAPI in less than 15 months. The below highlights examples of CAPI benefit metrics we have collected from our existing customers.

CAPI Benefit Metrics

Value

Average Time to achieve full Return on Investment

12 Months

Average Time to Install, Configure, Test, and Deploy

10 Days

Reduction in Time to Perform Code Migrations

80%-90%

Reduction in the Time to Rollback/Undo a Migration

90%-95%

Reduction in the Number of Migration Errors

80%-90%

Reduction in Time to Restore Code to Previous Version

85%-90%

Reduction in Response Time to Customers

25%-50%

Reduction in Average Time to Close User Reported Incidents

25%-50%

Reduction in Average Time to Complete Change Requests

25%-50%

Average Time to Apply PeopleSoft Bundles and Patches

10%-25%

Reduction in the Number of Lost/Overwritten Code

80%-100%

User Acceptance / Customer Satisfaction

Very High

Help Achieve SOX and Internal Audit Compliance

Very High

Additional Benefits - Explained

Infrastructure

No New Software Required: CAPI is built on PeopleTools technology, which means you, need not have to buy any additional software. You can leverage your existing PeopleSoft license to install CAPI. The end-users can develop ad-hoc queries and reports using the PeopleSoft delivered reporting tools.

No New Hardware Required: CAPI does not require any hardware investments because it can be installed onto an existing PeopleSoft infrastructure.

Technical Architecture: CAPI is built using PeopleTools technology and uses Process Scheduler to run CAPI batch processes. This simplifies the technical architecture and drastically reduces possibility of downtime.

Training

System Administration: Since CAPI is built using PeopleTools technology, you already have the expertise in house to install, configure, monitor and support CAPI.

Development Support: Customizations to CAPI user interface can be performed by your PeopleSoft development team, without any additional training.

Upgrades and Patches: Patches, bundles, and upgrades are easily applied because a CAPI patch is applied in the same manner as a PeopleSoft patch in that it consists of a PeopleSoft project, data mover scripts, and possibly SQL scripts. In addition, there is nothing additional or special you have to do to CAPI when you upgrade your existing PeopleSoft applications.

Deployment

Quick Installation: Installation of CAPI is normally completed in few hours and consists of similar tasks as those involved when applying a PeopleSoft bundle.

Leverage PeopleSoft Security: CAPI leverages existing PeopleSoft security so that you do not have to create new user profiles for CAPI from scratch. Also, single sign-on solution to any other PeopleSoft applications and LDAP integration are delivered out of the box.

CAPI - Support Policy

Our standard support policy for CAPI consists of:

Software updates, fixes and patches and upgrade scripts

Minor product and technology releases, which includes general maintenance releases, selected functionality releases and documentation updates.

Technical Support services over the phone, Monday through Friday - 24 hrs a day

Extended Technical Support services during holidays and weekends, on request

Submit support requests via email, 24x7

Onsite support for customers located anywhere in India

Onsite support for customers located in USA and Canada with advance notice

Service Request Guidelines: Reasonable efforts will be made to respond to service requests per the following standard:

Severity 1 Your production use of the supported programs is stopped or so severely impacted that you cannot reasonably continue work. You experience a complete loss of service. The operation is mission critical to the business and the situation is an emergency. A Severity 1 service request has one or more of the following characteristics:

Data corrupted

A critical documented functionality is not available

System hangs indefinitely, causing unacceptable or indefinite delays for resources or response

System crashes, and crashes repeatedly after restart attempts

Severity 2 You experience a severe loss of service. Important features are unavailable with no acceptable workaround; however, operations can continue in a restricted fashion.

Severity 3 You experience a minor loss of service. The impact is an inconvenience, which may require a workaround to restore functionality.

Severity 4 You request information, an enhancement, or documentation clarification regarding your software but there is no impact on the operation of the software. You experience no loss of service. The result does not impede the operation of a system.

What´s up with Functional Configuration Data?

At mcAMDOIS, we continuously challenge our competitors through our innovative ideas and technological advancements. mcAMDOIS takes pride in delivering this unique and trendsetter featur to address an imperative business requirement; that is to control the changes made to PeopleSoft Functional Configuration Data (i.e., your SETID, Business Unit setup data) and also to maintain one or more versions of the same online. From your PeopleSoft experience, you might have seen instances where the functional administrator had inadvertently changed the SETID data directly in the production environment, causing severe impact to the business.

Any uncontrolled change to the functional configuration will severely impact the business. Any changes to the setup data MUST be controlled and it has to follow through the standard Software Development Lifecyle process, which will make your PeopleSoft application 100% regulatory compliance.

Traditionally, any changes to the functional configuration data will be done using one of the following methods:

Directly update the setup data via the online pages,

Write SQL scripts to insert or update the setup data directly using the SQL query tool,

Migrate the setup data from the development or test environments using Data Mover Scripts.

you don't have a process to keep track of the change - who changed it, what was changed and when it was changed,

there are no easy ways to rollback the changes, if needed,

if the setup data are migrated using either method a or method b above - any slight mistake in the script will severely impact the entire business process; these are very high risk methods.

Answer these questions

Do you have any automated process to maintain multiple versions of the configuration data that you had setup?

Did you ever wished that you are provided an easy option to restore your previous/old configuration version, instead of depending on PeopleSoft development team or DBA to restore the data for you?

Did you ever wished that you could very easily pull a report on the changes made the functional configuration data; either for your management or for your auditors?

Solution
In our perception, a Change Management and Version Control application for PeopleSoft cannot be complete, if it does not provide version control for the functional configuration or the business rules data. Using CAPI, any changes made to the functional configuration data can be first done in the development instance, tested, UAT´d, approved by functional owners before moving the changes into the production. With a proper change management mechanism, like CAPI in place, for all the users you can remove the update/display privileges to functional configuration data setup pages and make them as read-only, so as to comply with SOX/regulatory compliance.

CAPI for PeopleSoft Version Control

CAPI helps to reduce your support costs and mitigate the risks associated with the quality and reliability of your PeopleSoft application programs and functional configuration data. CAPI versions and stores all of the Functional Configuration Data, Application Designer Objects and File Server Objects in its own repository. This reduces the risks of overwrites or lost development work by giving your team the power to immediately restore any object version without having to perform time-consuming database refreshes. In addition, CAPI prevents development conflicts by allowing your team to reserve and lock Application Designer Objects across all of your environments - making synchronization as easy as a mouse click.

Since a PeopleSoft database can only contain the latest version of an object, a change management product should be capable of storing multiple versions of objects with full recovery capabilities. During development stage of the change request, you may take a backup of the application designer objects and file server objects. You may be restoring different version at a future stage.
It is imperative that all the development work are backed up automatically to ensure that not even a single piece of development work are lost, due to any unforesee reasons or human errors.

CAPI captures and stores an unlimited number of versions taken during development, which archives any combination of functional configuration data/application designer objects/files in each version. This reduces the risks of overwrites or lost development work by giving your team the power to immediately restore any object version without having to perform time consuming database refreshes. CAPI prevents development conflicts by allowing your team to reserve and lock Application Designer objects across all of the configured PeopleSoft environments.

Highlights

Add Application Designer Objects either individually or from a project definition

Add File Server Objects - using XCopy, FTP and SFTP for connectivity

Synchronize project definition

View object properties online

View object history online

View object lock history online

View object pending lock requests online

Create Version Sets either online or offline to run at a scheduled date and time

Schedule to automatically create a version set or backup the development work at a specific date and time

Create the Version Set with either all or selected objects in the change request

Override Object´s Upgrade Action while creating the version set

Filter and view the objects in a version set

CAPI - Deployment/Migration Process

Problem
The migration process needs to be simplified and managed properly in order to eliminate the risk of unintended changes. After a customized object is tested in a development environment, the change needs to be migrated from one database to another. A change may need to pass through a series of databases before it finally becomes part of the production environment. It is advantageous for a PeopleSoft change management tool to support multiple, complex migration paths.

For example, a major change may migrate to a user acceptance environment prior to production, while a bug fix may go more directly to production due to its urgent nature. Naturally, the change management tool must allow you to select the correct migration path for the particular change. Given support for migration paths, an effective tool should check all databases on the path for object availability, providing developers with immediate visibility of object conflicts. An accessible audit trail of all changes and migrations affecting database and program objects is the primary reason for implementing a change management tool.

SolutionCAPI delivers a one-click version migration process. CAPI allows you to automate the migration process by combining Functional Configuration Data, Application Designer Objects, File Server Objects, and Scripts all together within the same Change Request. By clicking a single button, the PeopleTools objects will be migrated to the predefined database and the files to the predefined directories on the predefined servers. There are no additional user credentials to specify nor need to know the source files reside or target directories reside.

You can migrate change request online, offline, schedule it to run at a specified date and time or as part of a release. You will also have the option whether to run the migration scripts or not.

In addition, CAPI's ability to execute DMS and SQL scripts allow you to perform all these script executions from the browser without having to launch another application. All the migration logs and script execution logs are automatically attached to the Change Request so that you have a central location for all the activities that occurred during the migration.

Highlights

Choose whether to run uploaded migration scripts or not

Build Project in Target using either Application Designer or Data Mover

Migrate Version Sets either online, offline or as part of a release

Rollback Migration either online or offline at a scheduled date and time

View migration/rollback scripts and scripts output online

Sample Screenshot - Migration History

CAPI - Release Management

In a typical PeopleSoft implementation, the request for changes may be taken up and deployed into production as a part of monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, minor or major release. You may create one or more change requests for a release and deploy this release into the target system. CAPI helps you with the release planning to deploy the release all the way to the production.

The release definition can be deployed to one or more target database instances in parallel. In order to deploy the release, enter the migration parameters; select the run date and time and then click on the Schedule push button. Once scheduled, the release will be processed via the process scheduler and you can verify the run status either in the Release Schedules grid or in the process monitor.

Highlights

One or more change request can be tagged to a release

Edit the run order in which the change requests must be deployed

Schedule the migration scripts to be run automatically

Schedule the release to be processed at a particular date and time

Deploy the release to one or more target database instance

Sample Screenshot - Release Schedule

CAPI - Compare Reports

Problem
For a very long time it has been each and every developers dream to see the compare reports that makes most sense to them.

For example, in some of the other similar products available in the market, the compare reports displays the records (or rows) directly from the PeopleSoft System Catalogue (meta-data tables like PSRECDEFN, PSRECFIELD, etc).

Since, PeopleSoft encodes several of the application designer object types, a direct display of data from the PeopleSoft System Catalogue, will not be useful in a real time environment.

For example, in a record definition if a field is set with prompt table edit, the PSRECFIELD.USEEDIT field may contain the value 16384 (if there are other field edits set for this field, then, the value may change accordingly). Both from a developer and auditor perspective, if the value 16384 is displayed in the compare reports, it will not make any sense.

SolutionCAPI's compare reports has been meticulously designed to show the details in a format that makes sense to the users (let it be developers, auditors, etc). Using CAPI's compare reports, the users will see the data as they would see it in the application designer.

In CAPI, a record definition will be grouped in as 'Fields Display', 'Use Display', 'Edits Display' and 'PeopleCode Display'. All the record fields will be displayed from the versions that are being compared with all the encoded PeopleSoft System Catalogue values decoded. For example, in the 'Fields Display' tab the field type of a record field will be displayed as 'Number', 'Character', etc and in the 'PeopleCode Display' tab, all the PeopleCode events will be displayed. Moreover, you will have the option to see the PeopleCode online from the compare reports itself. To view the PeopleCode online, all you have to do is to click on the tick mark of any record PeopleCode event.

Again, CAPI has been meticulously designed to show compare reports in such sensible format for all the Application Designer Objects.

Highlights

the objects between any two environments (for example, development and test),

the current version with an earlier version in the same change request

any version in the current change request with any versions in other change requests

Compare Application Designer Objects and Highlight Changes

Compare File Server Objects and Highlight Changes on ASCII files

Compare Functional Configuration Data and Highlight Changes

Sample Screenshots - Summary View

Sample Screenshots - Report Filter

Sample Screenshots - Drilldown View

CAPI - Workflow Process

Problem
An effective change management tool for PeopleSoft enforces documentation of activities relevant to the change. The initial request, the design, the development, the testing results, and the approvals are some of the activities that should be documented. The change management system needs to be able to manage all documentation from the initial specification to the implementation scripts used to migrate to production. Additionally, the change management solution should record information on relevant database administration tasks that have been performed, such as migrations, recoveries, object updates, etc. It needs to become your primary PeopleSoft management tool so that when you need information, it is available immediately. Documentation should be robust and readily available. When preparing for an upgrade, the change management tool needs to be able to report on every change that has been made to your PeopleSoft application with 100% accuracy.

A policy for security and workflow should be complemented with a mechanism for approvals to authorize change. In fact, approvals may be an activity in the workflow. Change flowing through the process may reach several critical points that may require business-level approvals before continuing. Approvals provide check-and-balance controls. Once a change has been developed and unit tested, system testers must validate the change without hampering standard and customized functionality. System testers must approve before the change continues through the change process. Business owners may also need to provide their approval before a change can be moved to the production environment.

SolutionCAPI includes a workflow engine for defining the lifecycle of change. Workflow defines the lifecycle for change according to rules, activities and relationship defined by the organization.

The organization defines workflows to fit the business, and CAPI enforces these rules with each change. Workflows can also be defined to control patch activities. Workflow is essential for patch management to ensure issues are researched before a patch is applied and that every patch is fully tested.

CAPI enables far greater reporting and control with respect to your change management processes. CAPI allows you to enrich your change management related information and broaden your organization's access to it. All while systematically addressing approvals, routings, and notifications. This flexibility means that you can easily tailor change management tasks, system codes, routings, and approvals based upon organizational, even team-specific needs.

CAPI´s approval process leverages PeopleSoft Roles. You will have to create one or more PeopleSoft Roles for the approving the users. CAPI provides the flexibility to select the list of users in the Approval Role who can approve the change. CAPI delivers both user based approval and role based approval. For example, you can define either specific user(s) from an approval role to approve or to have any user from an approval role to approve.

CAPI provides the flexibility to store and retrieve one or more document at the workflow task level. CAPI stores the documents in its own repository.

Workflow status based security - Control access to change request pages based on the workflow status. For example, when the workflow is in the UAT status, you may want to restrict the developers from the making any changes (like adding/removing objects) to the change request.

Enforcement of required approvals

Configure both Role based and User based approvals

Create workflow with either user defined tasks or no tasks at all.

Define required tasks that must be completed to move from one workflow step to another

Document Repository - Attach one or more documents to a workflow task

Enforcement to attach documents to workflow tasks

Sample Screenshot - Change Request Workflow

CAPI - Migration/DBA Scripts

Running scripts as part of your migration is a feature unique to CAPI. Using CAPI, you can schedule one or more SQL/DMS/Shell/BAT scripts that need to be run automatically either before or after migration.

Say, you are converting data from mainframe/legacy system and configuring a new Business Unit and are developing few custom pages for this new business unit in PeopleSoft. As part of configuring this new Business Unit, consider that you have the following simple requirement to run additional data conversion and DBA scripts as part of the migration:

Run a Windows batch program before migration, to get/fetch the raw data from your mainframe/legacy application.

Run one or more pre-data conversion SQL scripts and/or Data Mover (DMS) scripts, before migration.

Run one or more post-data conversion SQL scripts and/or Data Mover (DMS) scripts, after migration.

Other change management applications currently available in the market, will allow you to migrate the application designer objects only and some may allow you to run the SQL scripts after migration.

Traditionally, the above tasks will be done with manual intervention every time the change is migrated. We believe that any migration task should be automatic without any kind of manual intervention.

Using CAPI you will now have the option of running those SQL/DMS/Shell/BAT scripts automatically as a part of migration. You will also have the option to run the SQL/DMS/BAT scripts before or after moving the objects (including business unit setup data, application designer objects and file server objects) found in the change request.

As a part of the migration CAPI will run the scripts in the order you have setup and stores the scripts that was run and the script output in its own repository. This further gives the flexibility to modify and test the scripts with every migration (until your final migration to production) and also to keep track on the scripts that was run with each migration requests. Yet another powerful feature of CAPI is that, when you print the Change Request, you will have the option to print the scripts and its output in the Change Request report, which will help you to provide accurate and pertinent information regarding the change request migration to your auditors.

Highlights

Run SQL/DMS/BAT/Shell scripts - both before and after migration

Select the database in which the scripts must be run.

Define exclusive scripts to run during migrations and rollback

Track and control the scripts run in production.

View uploaded scripts online

View script output online

Various versions of the scripts run along with a migration or rollback will be stored in scripts repository

CAPI - Selective Data Refresh

Problem
Yet another trendsetter feature of CAPI and first of its kind is to selectively refresh the application data between your PeopleSoft environments. In any PeopleSoft installation, there may be a requirement to copy/refresh the application data from either your production or UAT environment into the downstream environments.

Consider that you have a production issue, say the pay cycle (in Financials product suite, Accounts Payables module) is not processing a particular payment. In such a case, you may wish to get the voucher data alone as-is from the production environment and get it loaded into your development/test environment to debug the issue; as the issue pertains to that single voucher and not the paycycle process itself.

Consider yet another scenario where you need get a copy of all the data for a particular BUSINESS_UNIT and/or SETID. Most of the time, in such a case, you will request your DBA to get you a copy of production database in one of your development/test databases.

In most of the PeopleSoft installations, when such requirements arises, the customers would normally tend to take a backup of the entire production database and get it restored on top of the development/test environment. Very few PeopleSoft customers has developed a set of SQL/data mover script or a custom bolt-on application that would export the application data from the production database and import the same into the downstream environments. Since the development/test environments are not usually secured like the production environment, either of the above approaches may breach the security setup or the internal control procedure. From an auditing/regulatory standpoint, it is a very clear violation to say that the development/test environment looks exactly the same as the production environment (say, right after a database refresh), but is not as much secured as the production environment.

Contact us now to watch a live demo of this unique Selective Data Refresh feature. The live demo will help you to understand how this feature can help you to streamline the data refresh procedure, stop performing those time consuming database refreshes and, most importantly, drastically cut-down on the production issue response time.

Solution
Well, CAPI addresses this very important requirement by delivering a simple, easy-to-use but a powerful feature using which you can selectively refresh the application data between the environments and also keep track of when the data was refreshed, what data was refreshed, who refreshed the application data and most importantly who approved the data refresh.

With the introduction of this trendsetter feature, to resolve a data issue in the production database, you NO LONGER HAVE TO PERFORM any of the following tasks, which you normally used to do:

Shutdown production database to take a hot database backup

Run the export dump of production database, which would normally run long hours in a high volume database

Restore the database from the backup or import from the datadump, which would run for several hours

Re-apply the security

Depending on the DBA´s availability

Using CAPI´s selective data refresh feature, you can perform the following within no time:

Refresh selective data, either bulk of records (say, all vouchers in a business unit) or a single record (say, a particular voucher)

Run the selective data refresh online

Schedule to run the selective data refresh at a particular date and time

Capture and store manager´s approval

From an audit trail perspective, track when the data was refreshed, who authorized the refresh and who performed the data refresh

Any valid user can run the data refresh, without depending on DBA´s availability

Most importantly, if you normally used to run any data scrambling script (say, after database refresh of your HCM database), you can have those scripts to be automatically run post data refresh in CAPI now. This, obviously, will help your database refresh procedure to be SOX/regulatory compliant.

CAPI´s selective data refresh feature has been meticulously designed to deliver a high performance while working on a large volume of data. The in-built multi-threading process (for load balancing) will equally distribute the load across the threads, thereby delivering a high performance.

CAPI - Change Management Reports

CAPI enables companies to achieve SOX/regulatory compliance by enabling companies to enforce controls, implement established change management processes, and meet reporting requirements. CAPI is delivered with a powerful reporting platform that shows the effectiveness of the controls you have implemented. The main focus of CAPI reports is to insure that the controls you have placed in your change management process is being adhered. Using CAPI's dynamic reporting, the customers can choose what they want to see in the reports. CAPI delivers both Summary and Detailed reports.

Summary Reports: This is a MS-Excel based formatted report, with each issue or change request printed on one excel row. Please note that this is a XLS format report and not a CSV format report. These reports will come in handy during the IT status meeting.

Detailed Reports: This is a MS-Word based formatted report, with one section per issue or change request. You will have the option to explode the attachments directly inside the document or as an icon link to the document. This means, if you had stored the email approvals, design and specification documents and other related documents inside the change request, those attachments will be exploded inside the document. For example, during the year-end audit, you can print this report with attachments exploded. The report will contain all the information (provided if the required documents are attached) the auditors would like to see.

In addition to the above dynamic reporting, CAPI also delivers the traditional SQR Reports, XML Publisher reports (available on PeopleTools 8.48 version or higher), Queries, etc.

Highlights

SOX Compliance Reports

Custom Report Builder

Design what to print and how to print

Custom Report Builder

Report in MS-Word and MS-Excel (XLS) format

Integration with PS Query

Automatically explode stakeholder approvals sent via email

Automatically explode the scripts and script output run as part of migrations

Online, Real-Time Issue and Change Request Inquiry

XML Publisher Reports

Choose What to Print

We do not believe in delivering tens and hundreds of reports, as the reporting requirements differ from customer to customer. Instead, we deliver a single powerful reporting platform using which you can choose what you want see in your reports. Define any number of reporting templates that you may need and choose the sections and fields to print in each report template.

Choose How to Print

It is very common for the organizations to setup the document and reporting standards. With any other change management products available in the market, you are struck to use the layout and format that are delivered. But, with CAPI you can design your own layout and even choose the font styles to use.

CAPI - SOX/Regulatory Compliance

Key sections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 require public companies to provide greater "internal controls", auditing capability and real-time reporting for their financial systems. Section 404 is by far the most important to IT managers and employees as it addresses directly the underlying control systems such as PeopleSoft Financials. Section 404, effectively requires public firms to 'establish and maintain internal control structures and procedures for financials reporting' and 'report on the effectiveness of the internal control structure'. According to The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), internal control is defined as:

Internal control is broadly defined as a process, effected by an entity's board of directors, management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following categories:

Effectiveness and efficiency of operations.

Reliability of financial reporting.

Compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

The first category addresses an entity's basic business objectives, including performance and profitability goals and safeguarding of resources. The second relates to the preparation of reliable published financial statements, including interim and condensed financial statements and selected financial data derived from such statements, such as earnings releases, reported publicly. The third deals with complying with those laws and regulations to which the entity is subject. These distinct but overlapping categories address different needs and allow a directed focus to meet the separate needs.

Internal control systems operate at different levels of effectiveness. Internal control can be judged effective in each of the three categories, respectively, if the board of directors and management have reasonable assurance that:

They understand the extent to which the entity's operations objectives are being achieved.

Published financial statements are being prepared reliably.

Applicable laws and regulations are being complied with.

While internal control is a process, its effectiveness is a state or condition of the process at one or more points in time.

How CAPI helps you to achieve SOX compliance?
There are no organizations or groups recognized by any U.S. government entities that certify software as being SOX compliant. Instead, application change management software like CAPI is a tool that aids companies achieve SOX compliance by providing the mechanisms by which companies can enforce controls, implement established change management processes, and meet reporting requirements.

The table below lists some of the principles/practices that are enabled by CAPI and are utilized by companies to meet the standards set forth by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation:

SOX Section 404 Principles/Practices

mcAMDOIS CAPI

Segregation of Duties - roles and responsibilities are segregated to prevent conflicts of interest, risk of fraud, and enables better checks and balances.

Gated Processes - implementation of controls to prevent continuation of the process until pre-requisite process is completed such as manager approval or system testing.

Auditing Capability - ability to capture and report on historical record of all changes including who, when, what, and why.

Real Time Monitoring and Tracking - ability to track and monitor the entire life cycle of a change request in real time.

IT Security - implementation of proper security to prevent unauthorized access to data.

Code Versioning - backup versions of code during development and prior to migrations to enable rollback and prevent loss of work.

Reporting on Effectiveness of Controls - ability to report on process exceptions, security violations, and violations to implemented controls.

Segregation of Duties - CAPI's workflow feature coupled with row level security allows organizations to define custom change management processes that segregate tasks depending on the role. This allows the separation of tasks among developers, testers, migrators, and approvers. You can now enforce policies in which the developer who made the code change does not have the ability to perform the migration of that code change.

Gated Processes - Gated processes can be defined within CAPI workflow to require pre-requisite tasks to be completed before the change management process can continue. Thus, you can require and enforce successful testing, proper documentation, and manager approval prior to a migration task.

Auditing Capability - CAPI is the central repository for all the activities associated with incidents and change requests. Detailed transactional data such as whom, what, and when a migration was performed is captured by CAPI and this information is accessible via online pages or delivered reports.

Real Time Monitoring and Tracking - CAPI's flexible reporting and query capabilities allow for monitoring of activities in the system from high-level management statistics to the detailed issues and change request tasks that are on-going. The Issue/Change Request Tracker provides an easy search and navigation point to everything going on in the system with the ability to drill into detail transactions.

Analysis of Results - The detailed historical information accumulated in the CAPI repository provides the opportunity to analyze performance across numerous metrics including average time to resolution, statistical counts by type of requests, by functional areas, priority, specific users and time-frames. Queries and reports can be developed to provide timely analysis of the Key Performance Indicators for your organization.

Information Technology Security - CAPI is tightly coupled with the PeopleSoft infrastructure and security which results in an industry-proven security solution. In addition, security within CAPI has been extended to include row-level permissions to enable organizations to implement security solutions that are highly flexible with a greater granularity.

Code Versioning - One of the main features of CAPI is the ability to version all Functional Configuration Data, Application Designer Objects and File Server Objects. Code versioning can be built into your change management process to allow easy back out of code changes after a migration. Detailed information on each historical version of the object is easily accessible using online pages and you have the ability to revert back to any previous version of that code object.

Reporting - CAPI is delivered with a powerful reporting platform that show the effectiveness of the controls you have implemented. The main focus of CAPI reports is to insure that the controls you have placed in your change management process is being adhered.

CAPI - Hardware and Software Requirements

Since CAPI is built using PeopleTools technology, there are no hardware and software requirements specific to CAPI installation. CAPI's hardware and software requirements are same as the hardware and software requirements of installing a PeopleSoft environment. Refer to the Hardware and Software requirements documentation of your PeopleTools version for more information.

The technical architecture of CAPI is same as your PeopleSoft Internet Architecture. CAPI's application server can installed in Windows, Unix and Linux operating systems. However, if you have a non-Oracle database and if you are planning to use CAPI's Build Project feature, then, it is imperative that the CAPI's application server is installed in a Windows based operating system only.

Supported Platforms

CAPI is certified to be installed and run on the following PeopleTools versions:

When mcAMDOIS stepped in they were welcomed with a list of issues which covered the complete PeopleSoft HCM Application. Each and every page, record and element was to be reconfigured and redesigned to work dynamic irrespective of date, time and also making sure it fulfills our complete requirements. They did an awesome job of stabilizing the PeopleSoft Application System phasing out all our legacy / third party system. They were also able to quickly have the application integrated with our Oracle Finance Application.

- HR Manager, India´s first private limited company

Before CAPI it will take us several days to prepare for migrating bunch of changes. CAPI´s release management had helped us to reduce this time taken from 5 days to few minutes.

- Project Manager, A fortune 5 company

Replaced the existing ACM with CAPI. The total cost of ownership of CAPI is a fraction when compared with the earlier ACM.